Most Important Muscles for a Volleyball Player

Most Important Muscles for a Volleyball Player
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The most important muscles for a volleyball are those you can see, such as the quadriceps, calves and deltoids, as well as those you can't see as easily, such as the heart.The explosive and fast-paced nature of volleyball requires muscles that provide great jumping ability and a powerful serve and spike and are flexible enough to respond to the diving, digging, blocking and running the sport.requires.

Leg Muscles

To make sure your leg muscles maintain strength and stamina game after game, build up your quadriceps strength and all your leg muscles' conditioning through activities such as sprints or "suicides." On a basketball court, stand at one end of the court and on your coach's signal, sprint to the first free-throw line, touch the ground and sprint back to your starting position. Turn quickly, touch the end line and sprint out to mid-court and back to the end line. Do the same there-and-back sprints to the far free-throw line and then the far end line.

Anti-Volleyball Muscles

Some of the most important muscles a volleyball player are not those that get the biggest workouts. Instead they are the complementary muscles that help support those that do most of the work. Most of a volleyballer's effort comes from muscles in the front of his body, such as arms and quadriceps, so working some of the posterior muscles, such as the hamstrings and the back of the shoulders, could help prevent overuse injuries. These can occur when one set of muscles is significantly stronger and bigger than its counterpart elsewhere in the body.

Shoulders and Arms

Volleyball requires strength and flexibility in your shoulders to deliver powerful serves and hits of all kinds. Strong triceps and forearms are also valuable. Some helpful exercises for those muscle groups include the military press, upright rows, dumbbell lifts up from your side and triceps curls. Forearm curls focusing on the tops and bottoms of the forearms will also help get your arms in volleyball shape.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness

The heart muscle also needs to be working at maximum efficiency for your best volleyball playing. And the best way to do that is to exercise your heart at about 60 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate about three days a week. That can include treadmill running or biking or simply exercising by playing sports such as volleyball and tennis. Those activities will also benefit your other big muscles.

References

Article reviewed by Geoffrey Darling Last updated on: Jun 26, 2011

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